We will fight against assisted suicide to the tip, say opponents

Opponents of assisted suicide have vowed to fight on after Friday’s disappointing third reading vote in favour of fixing the law. 

Despite the blow, Right to Life UK said the significantly reduced margin of only 23 votes was a “remarkable reversal of fortune” for Kim Leadbeater’s bill, which saw support diminish over the months because it passed on its second reading with a 55-vote majority.

Right to Life UK, which has been campaigning for higher palliative care as a substitute of assisted suicide, said Friday’s result showed how “flawed” the bill is. It stays “confident” that the bill can still be overturned within the House of Lords. 

Catherine Robinson, spokesperson for the charity, said that “momentum stays with its opponents, with support consistently falling each time MPs have considered it”.

“The bill leaves the Commons lacking a majority, with fewer than half of all MPs voting for it at its final stage,” she said. 

“We can be fighting this bill at every stage within the House of Lords, where we’re confident it could be overturned given its continued lack of support.

“Hundreds of hundreds of individuals from across the country, from a wide selection of backgrounds and with differing views, have come together on this one issue. We can be working together to make sure this Bill, which might have a profoundly negative impact on vulnerable people in our society, never becomes law.

“The most vulnerable in our society deserve our unwavering protection and the very best standard of care, not a pathway to assisted suicide.”

She added, “With our NHS described by the Health Secretary as ‘broken’, and 100,000 people still dying every year without the palliative care they need, this assisted suicide laws is a disaster waiting to occur.” 

John Deighan, chief executive of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said his organisation can be lobbying the House of Lords to scrutinise the bill and ultimately reject it.

“It could be very disappointing that, despite the growing evidence of problems with this bill, MPs have voted to progress this bill,” he said.

“They have abdicated their responsibility to scrutinise laws effectively and be sure essentially the most vulnerable are protected.”But we is not going to surrender. The majority since November has been halved, and the bill still faces an uphill battle to clear all parliamentary stages.”

Ross Hendry, CEO of Christian social policy charity CARE, called the vote in favour of assisted suicide “a blow to human dignity”. He said the charity stands with others in continuing to oppose the bill. 

“People on either side of the assisted suicide debate share a desire to alleviate human suffering. In our view, facilitating suicides under an irredeemably flawed legislative regime is the unsuitable solution to help struggling residents,” he said. 

“Palliative and end-of-life care requires significant, and urgent investment. Yet, conventional care can be harmed if assisted suicide becomes legal. “We will proceed to fight this bill, together with many others.”

Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, said, “Peers must now grasp the nettle, committing to rigorous scrutiny, addressing the issues and weaknesses MPs left in place, and if they can not, they need to vote it down.”

Not Dead Yet, a disability advocacy group, is preparing to “redouble” its efforts to fight the bill because it moves to the House of Lords. 

Baroness Campbell, co-founder of the charity, said she was “heartened that almost all in favour was so small”. 

“An issue of such profound significance mustn’t be decided in this fashion. Our fight goes on. Disabled people’s lives can be at great risk if the bill passes into law,” she said. 

“The passage of this bill within the Commons is a setback, nevertheless it is just not the tip,” the charity’s spokesperson Mike Smith added. 

“We call upon the House of Lords to act because the vital revising chamber it is supposed to be. They must hearken to the voices of disabled people whose lives are directly threatened by this laws and act to guard them.

“Not Dead Yet UK and our allies can be there every step of the way in which, fighting to stop this dangerous law from causing irreparable harm.”

The Catholic Archbishop of Southwark John Wilson called on opponents to proceed praying and campaigning in defence of human life. 

“This is a terrifyingly dark week in British history, as MPs vote for laws which endangers the lives of unborn children, and promote laws which can endanger vulnerable adults and the elderly,” he said.

“All those that stand on the side on the side of life, and who uphold the dignity of human life from conception to natural death, need to lift their voice in defence of those that are voiceless.

“Irrespective of spiritual belief it is a matter of basic justice for each human life.

“As followers of the Lord Jesus, we’re a people of life. Jesus is our hope and in his name we are going to tirelessly make the case for the defence of human life. Life is sacred. It is a present from God and we mustn’t ever be afraid to talk this truth.

“I urge you to proceed to wish and campaign in defence of human life.”